Word Templates

Free Certificate of Recognition Templates for Word: 5 Printables

Preview every template, choose colour or black and white and your paper size, then download your Word files in one small ZIP file.

Made by a teacherLong bond and A420 Word documentsFree

Updated 13 November 2026 · By Patrick Elliott

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These free certificate of recognition templates give you Word documents on long bond (13 x 8.5 in) and A4 landscape: a certificate of recognition with honors, an academic excellence certificate, a special award certificate, a certificate of completion or moving-up and a certificate of participation, each in colour and in black and white. Every template is human-made by a teacher: I’m Patrick Elliott, a teacher and Inclusion Lead, and I designed and built each one myself in Microsoft Word, then printed them to check they line up and fill the page as they should.

In this guide, you’ll find which certificate to use, how to fill in the names and honors, and how to print a whole class quickly with mail merge.

What’s in the Certificate of Recognition Templates

👉 Click any name, grade or date and type. Click With Honors to choose With High Honors or With Highest Honors from the list.

What Goes on a Certificate of Recognition?

Philippine school certificates of recognition follow a familiar layout: the school logo and name at the top, “Certificate of Recognition”, “is presented to”, the learner’s name, grade and section, the distinction, the grading period or school year, the “Given this … day of …” line, and signatures of the class adviser and the school principal. They are independent templates from Word Made Easy, not official DepEd documents, so they carry no DepEd seal: add your school’s name and logo if your division asks for them.

Which Certificate Should You Use?

• With Honors: choose With Honors, With High Honors or With Highest Honors from a list, for each quarter or the year.
• Academic Excellence: for the year-end honors list, with the grade level and school year.
• Special Award: Best in Reading, Most Diligent, Perfect Attendance and more, or type your own.
• Completion or Moving-Up: for Kindergarten, Elementary or Junior High School completers.
• Participation: for contests, programs and school activities. Plan the ceremony with the recognition program templates.

How to Fill In the Certificates

1. Choose your paper size above, download the ZIP and open the certificate you want.
2. Click the school name and address and type, then add your school logo in the circle (right-click, Change Picture).
3. Click the learner name, grade and section and type, then choose the honor from the list.
4. Type the date in the “Given this” line and the names of the adviser and principal.
5. Print at 100% on long bond or A4 landscape. For a whole class, use mail merge with a list of names.

Print one test certificate first and check the logo and the names fit. For many learners, keep a list in Excel and use Mailings > Start Mail Merge in Word. Our step-by-step guide shows how to mail merge certificates in Word, including names in capitals and awards.

Black and White Versions

Every template on this page also comes in a black and white version with the same layout: grey headings and an outlined title, so it prints clearly on any printer and saves ink. In the download box, choose Long bond or A4 for the colour files, Black and white for the black and white files on both papers, or Everything for all of them.

How to Print at the Right Size

1. Open the template in Word and press Ctrl + P (Cmd + P on a Mac).
2. Choose the paper size in the file name: long bond (8.5 x 13 in) or A4.
3. Set scaling to 100% or Actual size, not Fit to page.
4. Print one sheet and measure a row with a ruler before you print a class set.

Every sheet keeps a 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) margin on all sides, so nothing is cut off on home inkjets, school laser printers or older printers with a wide edge.

FAQs

Conclusion

These certificates of recognition make every honor and award look its best, human-made by a teacher in Microsoft Word.

Choose your paper size above, download the ZIP, and to plan the ceremony itself, use the recognition program templates.

Related Tutorials

• Free Recognition Program Templates for Word
• Free Certificate Templates for Word
• Free Item Analysis and MPS Templates for Word